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The complete five season box set release has spawned some new Wire reviews and recs.

Ran across this article at CNN.com. The reviewer offers high praise for the series but grew up in West Baltimore and says he feels The Wire is bleaker than the world he grew up in.

Why did Cutty give Dukie such a hopeless answer? Maybe it’s because some people who never lived in a neighborhood like “The Wire” confuse hopelessness for authenticity. Yeah, I could shock you with stories of violence, but it’s so easy to slip from revelation to titillation. I start off telling you a story about how tough my school was, and soon I’m shooting it out with five drug dealers who want to steal my homework.

But I never remember West Baltimorebeing so hopeless. A man like Cutty wouldn’t tell a young man that he had no way out — adults rallied around kids with potential.

I even checked with some childhood friends — one who is now an undercover police officer who literally works a “wire” for the Baltimore Police Department — and we all agreed that “The Wire’s” bleakness was exaggerated.

“They made it seem like we grew up in Bosnia,” my friend, another “Wire” fan, told me.

Rachel Maddow had Princeton’s Melissa Harris-Lacewell on last night to discuss the drama surrounding seats in the US Senate opened by Obama’s appointments. Naturally, the discussion focused primarily on the Blagojevich scandal. Watch the entire segment to hear Dr. Harris-Lacewell’s parting admonition:

Tomorrow, members of the cast of the Peabody Award-winning drama series The Wire will attend a Backyard Brunch for Barack in Raleigh. Seven of the show’s cast members will visit the Tarheel State in support of the change Barack Obama will bring across the country and in North Carolina.

On Monday, Chad Coleman, Deidre Lovejoy, and Jamie Hector will visit UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University to encourage students to vote early. Early voting in North Carolina started October 16 and November 1 is the last day voters may take advantage of early voting.

October 27, 2008
Categories: The Media, Wire News . . Author: virgotex . Comments: Comments Off on Well, it WAS his favorite show, after all

You know what I like about Roger Ebert’s movie criticism? He likes movies. Really. He shares a trait with the best pop-culture critics I’ve known through the years: He walks into every movie with an open mind and open heart, expecting to be entertained. Overwhelming experience has taught him he’s as likely to be disappointed as not — hello, Deuce Bigalow — but he’s hopeful. He wants to like it. It’s like the teacher tells you on the first day of class. “Everybody has an A right now. If you get anything lower, it’s your doing.”

Everyone knows “The Wire” has been one of the most highly praised shows in TV history, garnering the sort of over-the-top plaudits that can make even the person receiving them despair. How does David Simon top “The Wire?” He’s not even 50 yet. “Generation Kill” — now with super-duper, extra double-dog Simonizing genius! You gotta feel for the guy, if only a little.

As one of those people who slung those superlatives, I plead guilty to going into this season like sunny Roger Ebert, expecting to love it. And guess what? I did. I won’t call Season 5 “a rare misstep” or a huge letdown, or anything else. It was a nice package, a little light at 10 hours, but not stepped-on at all. If pressed to single out favorite seasons, I’ll go with the evens — two and four. But five was fine.

So I’m sorry that the series’ final act was such a deep, deep disappointment to so many people who have columns and high-profile blogging sinecures, and could write with a straight face how surprising it was that David Simon, with such a finely tuned ear to the music of the street, could have it all fall apart when he tries to write the newsroom. Oh, please. Like these college-educated white boys supplement their incomes slangin’ on the corner, absorbing the nuances of the local patois. Continue reading →